The days are getting shorter, and the weather is getting cooler. Which means it is time to hike more again. I love to go out for hikes on Sunday mornings, when the air is still crisp after a cold night and the grass is still wet. Early morning hikes are the best way to start a Sunday in my opinion. A couple of weekends ago we headed out for our first fall hike in Moerbeke, Belgium. We headed out to the heather forest in Moerbeke (het heidebos).
There are multiple parking lots at the forest, but we always park our car at parking lot 1, which is located at Keizershoek, Moerbeke. From here you can start 4 hiking trails, varying in length from 2,1 kilometer up to 6,4 kilometer. Since we didn’t bring our dog Indy on this hike, we decided on the AS Adventure route of 5 kilometer, which dogs aren’t allowed on.
Unfortunately we decided to hike counterclockwise, which isn’t the smartest thing, as the signs are set up to hike clockwise. It is a well marked route, so even having to look back for the right signs, it was easy to follow the route. The route is unpaved, and takes you through the forest, as well as through the heather fields, where cows roam free. We didn’t encounter any on our hike this time, but due to the cows, dogs aren’t allowed in this area.
The first signs of fall were already starting to show in the forest, with leaves starting to turn color and fungi popping up along the trail. You can take some time to rest at multiple places with benches. The perfect spot to just take in the beauty of this forest.
It is just a short, but beautiful hike. You can combine this loop with the longer yellow one for a longer hike.
Let me know in the comments if you will visit this beautiful forest in the future.
If you are looking for a hike to witness the beautiful bluebells in Belgium, but you don’t want to beat the crowds at the popular places, this forest might be the place to be for you.
During the month of April multiple forests are covered in a beautiful sea of blue flowers, bluebells. A magical sight to behold that is for sure. We explored a new forest to us which is famous for it’s bluebells. A smaller forest that is, but still beautiful. The bluebells were just starting to bloom. So now would be the perfect time to visit this forest.
We decided on a 8 km hike through and along the beautiful area next to the Kravaal forest. We parked our car at a little bar called “Bij Stinne” from where we started our hike. First we hiked along the edge of the forest and unto the open fields. Which at the moment where blooming with beautiful yellow rapeseed. Which gave a lot of color to the landscape. The first leaves are also starting to show on the trees. So finally it is time to hike through some lush landscapes.
The hike is mostly unpaved, and passes in between the acres, but also through some beautiful villages close to the forest. After about 4k, you enter the forest. Which was quite muddy this time of year with all the rain. But we didn’t let the mud stop us. As we entered the beautiful Kravaal forest we had to hike a little before we reached the area where the first bluebells where showing their colors and the blossom trees where also in full bloom. As I said before this week would be the perfect time to visit this beautiful forest.
Where to start the hike?
The hike starts at Dorpveld 1 in the town of Asse. You can park your car at the local bar called “Bij Stinne” from where you can pick up the trail.
Let me know in the comments if you try out this hike.
Even though it is still cold, hiking in winter is always a good idea. Just layer up and get outside. Which is what we did on a winter’s day in February and headed to the small town of Brakel, Belgium, to visit this beautiful forest. Where you will find bluebells in just a month or so. The first bluebell leaves are already popping up everywhere.
We started our hike at the parking lot, which is free. You will find the parking lot at the end of the Brakelbosstraat, in Brakel.
There are two routes set out throughout the forest, but since these aren’t too long, we decided to make our own route, with our AlpenVerein app. We hiked a total of 8k in this beautiful forest toward the village of La Houppe, and back through the forest. From La Houppe we also climbed the Pottelberg, which is 157 meter. If you have ever visited The Netherlands, you know we would even call this a mountain. Even though it is not of course.
The forest will be home to thousands of bluebells soon, which you can already see popping up everywhere underneath the trees. The forest isn’t very big, but you can also combine this forest with other forests for longer hikes, like the two forest hike.
We enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in this beautiful forest, with it’s little wooden bridges and it’s beautiful trees. I would love to come back here during spring to see all the bluebells bloom. Would you?
Are you looking for a hiking destination within The Netherlands? Look no further, I have found you the perfect destination for a weekend get away in The Netherlands.
Let me introduce you to the beautiful area Voorne-Putten. With 375 kilometers of hiking trails, an amazing place to go hiking for the weekend.
Voorne-Putten is situated just south of Rotterdam, in the province of Zuid Holland. Which makes it an ideal place for a weekend getaway. It is rural and has the only south facing beach in The Netherlands, in Rockanje. Add to that all the picturesque villages and you have a perfect setting for fall.
Boutique hotel de Oude Veste
Where to stay?
We stayed in the beautiful old town of the city Hellevoetsluis at Boutique hotel de Oude Veste. A beautiful small scale hotel housed in the building of the old marine school. The building was build in 1878. And you will only find 7 rooms, all in their own beautiful style. We stayed in room 6, which has a beautiful view of the harbor of Hellevoetsluis and the windmill. Which was first located at ‘Droogdok Jan Blanken’ and was later moved to it’s current location.
The hotel is within walking distance of all the sights of Hellevoetsluis, so you won’t need your car while staying here.
What to see?
In Hellevoetsluis you will find the old defense lines. ‘Stichting Verdedigingswerken’ organizes tours along the defense lines from April until the beginning of October. We were fortunate to catch one of the last tours of the season. As they are not allowed to enter the casemates during the winter months, due to bats.
I can highly recommend taking a tour of the defense line in Hellevoetsluis, as it comes with an incredible story about the history of the beautiful city of Hellevoetsluis.
After your tour you can take a hike through the city of Hellevoetsluis, there are different routes possible. You can make your own route with the “knooppunten” which are well marked along the city.
If you stay within the city, I can highly recommend going for a sunrise hike, which is what we did. As the city is still quiet and the boats reflect beautiful in the water.
Hiking route “Duinen & Valleien”
Where to go hiking? But of course we came here to go hiking, as Voorne Putten counts 375 kilometer of hiking trails. So let me take you along on the hike “Duinen & Valleien” which starts in the dunes of Rockanje.
We parked our car at the info centre at Tenellaplas, in Rockanje. Where you can easily start the hike, as the first marker is right in front of the visitor centre.
Visitor centre Tenellaplas
Between the ‘knooppunten’ you will follow the red arrow, which will point you in the right direction to the next ‘knooppunt’.
It is an amazing route which totals 13 kilometers, along the beautiful forest and dunes of the island Voorne Putten.
The route is almost entirely unpaved and it almost doesn’t feel like you are in The Netherlands at all. As you just keep walking within nature.
The trail starts in the beautiful forests, and through the dunes, back into the forest. There is only a small part of the trail that will take you along a bicycle path, but that is only about 1k of the total trail.
There are numerous benches along the trail, so just bring your lunch along and find a beautiful spot for a picknick. While you enjoy the peacefulness of this area.
After returning to the visitor centre, don’t forget to check it out. It has some beautiful displays with information of this beautiful area. As well as a little shop. You can also buy hiking routes for children here, called the ‘knapzak’ route.
There is also a restaurant situated next to the parking lot, for your after hike drinks.
Ravense Hout, Hellevoetsluis
If you are looking for a shorter hike, you will want to visit the forest called Ravense Hout, just outside of the city. A beautiful forests, where dogs are allowed to roam free. And where you will find some amazing lanes and bridges inside the forest. We ended our weekend here with a short hike of 3k. Along the beautiful lanes and water ways that are numerous in this forest.
Ravense HoutRavense Hout
Where to eat?
Last, but not least, where to eat while visiting Voorne-Putten? I mean, who doesn’t get hungry from all that hiking? So a good and hearty meal will go along way.
We had dinner at restaurant de Beeren in Heenvliet, a beautiful restaurant, in an even more beautiful town. So don’t forget to head over into town after having dinner.
Restaurant de Beeren
Have you ever visited the island of Voorne-Putten? Let me know in the comments or if you are planning on visiting the island in the future.
The Hallerforest is famous for the bluebell, they usually bloom during the month of April.
Since I had never been there before I decided to go there at the end of March, of course the bluebells weren’t blooming yet. Even without the bluebells I absolutely loved this forest. I could wander around this forest for hours on end.
In March the forest was still completely deserted at sunrise. For me it is the absolute perfect time to head into the forest. I love to wander around a forest that is just waking up.
You will find two trails in the Hallerforest, a short and a longer trail, but you can also just wander around the forest. There are a lot of signs, so it is quite easy to get around.
While I was shooting, a deer crossed the trail, unfortunately I didn’t see him, but my friend that tagged along did. He even saw the deer twice, but apparently I need new glasses, because I really didn’t see him.
We decided to not hike a trail, but just wander around the forest. Which in this forest is a perfect option, because the forest holds so many beautiful lanes.
The other day I came up with this idea to do a review of the month, so you can have a little sneak peek in our live while we are not out travelling. We both have a day job, so we try to get out during the weekend as much as possible. This month has been full with all sort of activities. Let me tell you all about them.
Vakantiebeurs Utrecht
Every year we go to the ‘Vakantiebeurs’ in Utrecht, which is the biggest travel fair in The Netherlands. So of course this January we went there again and came home with lots of inspiration. If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen some of my pictures of the fair in my instastories.
We looked into trips to Japan and some destinations closer to home, like the North Coast of Spain and the Dolomites in Italy. Either one will probably be our destination for our spring roadtrip.
There is also a hall with lots of camping gear and this year there was a stand with rooftop tents, which we added to our list of gear we would love to purchase in the future.
Hiking
Ofcourse we also went hiking, this time we ventured to the Kloosterbos in Belgium, where we did just a small hike in the late afternoon and we were so lucky to come across 4 deer on our hike! I can barely believe it myself, since I had never seen a deer in this area before.
We also stayed close to home for our walks with Milow where we ventured into the forest as much as possible.
Photography
Ofcourse I can’t go an entire month without going out just to photograph, so I went into town to do some night time photography.
Bruges The last weekend of January Andy and I headed out to Bruges with one of my friends. We visited the brewery the Halve Maan. I had never visited the brewery before, but ofcourse I did have some Brugse Zot before, which is one of the house brands of the brewery. Did you know that they transport the beer underneath the streets of Bruges? I will tell you all about Bruges in another blog.
As you can tell we had a busy, but fun month of January. Along with a lot of trips and fun activities we also had a lot of appointments for our new home, which they hopefully start building in June. Keeping our fingers crossed for that.
So what did you do this month? And would you like me to continue posting a review of our month?
Like I told you a while ago we spend the last weekend of september on the Veluwe. I had signed up for a photography workshop that Sunday and since it started at 7 in the morning we decided to make it a weekend getaway.
We drove up to Garderen on Friday night after work. We stayed at the Bilderberg hotel Speulderbos, where we enjoyed the comforts of a hotel with the forest starting right at the front door.
We were extremely lucky with the weather that weekend, because we had fog in the morning, both on Saturday and Sunday, and a beautiful sunny afternoon. As a photographer I prefer to have some fog when I shoot in the forest.
The first day we didn’t get up super early, but we started the day a bit more relaxed with a breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast we drove up to Drie where we parked the car and hiked a 10km route through the Speulderbos.
We hiked through old forests and through fields of heather and we were lucky to run into the sepherd and his herd. We watched the sheep graze for a while.
The Speulderbos truly is a magical forest, I had never seen anything like it in The Netherlands.
Because we went in September it was also a great time to go and look for fungi, which is what we did during our hike. There are a lot of different varieties to be found in the Speulderbos and we were lucky to spot quite a few.
After our hike we returned to the parking lot at Boshuis Drie. We wanted to grab some lunch here, but unfortunately there was no free table left. If you want to have lunch here after your hike, make sure to make some reservations beforehand.
We drove back to the hotel to have a small lunch and just relax at the front lawn in the sun before we had dinner.
I can’t believe October has come to an end already and I haven’t posted all month. So it is time to catch up. The last weekend of september we spend the weekend at the Veluwe, a national park in the Netherlands. And to be a bit more specific in the beautiful area of the Speulderbos. Sorry for all the Dutch names of the places, but there is never a good way to translate.
We stayed in a hotel for the weekend, just something different for a change. And I took a photography workshop there, which I will tell you more about in my next blog.
We have been to the Veluwe last year for the first time. Last year we stayed in the beautiful village Otterlo, which is situated right next to one of the entrances of the National Park. So we could just walk to the Park from our hotel.
The Veluwe is the biggest National Park based in the Netherlands, and it has a big variety of landscapes. It is also one of the places you will find deer among other animals.
One thing the national park is famous for is the white bikes, which you will find at all three entrances and scattered throughout the park. You can just pick one up and use it all day, or just to get you from one pick up point to the next and continue by foot.
Last year we did a tour of the park by bike, because we were only there for a day. We wanted to see as much of the Veluwe as possible, so we rode the bikes. Lucky for us we had the place practicly to ourselves since we were there on a monday and summer break was already over.
We rode past areas of sand, forests, heather. Around every corner the landscape was even more beautiful then the one before. The Veluwe truly amased me with all its differsity.
On the Veluwe you will also find the Kroller-Muller musuem, when we were there it was closed so we didn’t go in, but we did admire the sculptures outside.
We did however visit the Museonder, which is situated in the central area of the parc where you will also find a place to eat. The Museonder will tell you about how the Veluwe came to be and will tell you more about the nature and wildlife you can find in the park. It is a free interactive museum and a great place to take your kids.
You can easily spend an entire day here or even multiple days if you want to hike in the Park. There is something from everyone, art, museum, bike paths, hiking routes, and ofcourse some amazing nature.
If you visit the Netherlands you can’t skip this place. In my next blog I will tell you more about our adventures in the Speulderbos!
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